Severine - The Sorceress
by vvshadowmaiden
Summary: {Character Histories - Short Story Collection} Severine is a young Breton who aspires to be a great sorceress one day. This brief story follows her as she grows up with her father in Stornhelm, learning and inquiring about everything around her until her knowledge has surpassed what her father can teach her.
1. Introduction

Up on the edge of a rocky cliff, overlooking the city of Shornhelm, stood a small, old cottage with walls of weather-beaten stone and a steep-sloped roof of faded grey tiles. Its secluded location meant that it was incredibly quiet and incredibly private, however for many people who had lived there, the house's isolation had provided an uncomfortable solitude. Yet throughout the house's history, there had been a few who enjoyed the peace. The last two residents, a father and daughter, spent most of their lives in the cottage, and would perhaps have stayed longer had certain events not occurred...


	2. The Study

"Daddy, what's this?" asked the little girl. She held a long-stemmed sprig covered in tiny purple blooms delicately in her small hand.

"That's lavender, dear," sighed her father in reply. His dark-haired head had been bowed down over a pile of old tomes on his desk, but now he looked across the small study room at his curious daughter. After answering the question, however, he turned back to his books.

"It smells pretty," the little girl smiled as she held the flower in front of her face, before sliding it behind her ear. She shook her smooth ebony hair gently to make sure that the purple bloom was secure enough, but as she swished her shoulder length waves through the air, the lavender fell to the floor. The girl frowned as she reached down to pick up the flower, and was about to put it back in her hair to try again when she looked towards her father. With a mischievous grin, she crept up behind her studying father, and placed the flower gently behind his right ear. The girl giggled, and though her father was attempting to work, he couldn't help but smile.

"Now you can smell pretty like a flower!" announced the little girl proudly.

"Thank you, sweetheart," her father replied. "But as much as I love to be scented so delightfully, I don't think flowers are very good at reading. Why don't you go back to exploring, while_ I_ continue to read my books?"

"Okay," smiled the little girl, her sky blue eyes sparkling in the soft light of the candle chandelier that hung from the ceiling above. "I'll go back to explorer-ing."The little girl resumed what she had been doing for the past hour or so, and that was investigating her father's rather cluttered study, a small room built into the roof-space of the cottage.

The room was filled with boxes and chests scattered about the floor, each one containing an assortment of journals, potions, or tattered papers. The walls of the study were lined with cabinets and bookshelves that reached from floor to ceiling. Then, on the wall of the room farthest from the splintering entry hatch, was the father's desk, beneath the only window in the study. The wooden desk was a curious piece of furniture, an item almost as old as the house itself but with far less scratches and holes. For reasons unknown, this carved oak desk had been cared for more than anything else in the house. The small, round window above the desk was also interesting in the sense that it was oddly out of place. Like the rest of the building, it was old and faded, but its stained-glass panels still glowed when the light shone through them, illuminating the coloured depiction of an unknown female figure.

The little girl circled the room a few times before halting in front of one of the cabinets. This particular cabinet contained all sorts of alchemical supplies, but since most of the shelves were far above the girl's eye level, she could not tell what was up there. From where she stood, there was but one thing that she could see on the higher shelves; a small bowl on the far left of the top shelf glowed with a dim blue light.

"Daddy, what's that?" the little girl questioned as she pointed towards the glow. "It looks sparkly."

Her father turned around in his seat, a tired expression on his face as he looked where his daughter was pointing. "Glow dust," he sighed before returning to his studies once again.

"Like fairy dust?" the little girl asked, her voice full of excitement.

"Uh, sure. Like fairy dust."

"Can I have it?"

"What for?"

"To turn myself into a fairy, of course!"

Her father chuckled. "It doesn't exactly work like that, Severine."

"Oh. Well, then I don't need the fairy dust. You can have it." The girl looked curiously at the gentle glow for a few seconds more, but her attention shortly wandered elsewhere, and she began scanning the room for something else to investigate.


End file.
